February 6, 2003

Managing Stress in Your Sheep Flock

"Stress management is critical to maintaining a productive flock," says Roger Haugen, North Dakota State University Extension sheep specialist. Proper nutrition, health and handling are essentials. "There are three stages when stress management will most effectively reduce losses: pregnancy, shearing and weaning," says Haugen.

If nutritional needs are not met animals are under constant stress, leaving them susceptible to other complications, he explains. Along with good nutrition, producers should implement a health program. Controlling parasites and other health concerns allows animals to be more resistant to infections and grow more efficiently.

"Animal welfare is an important issue. This creates a need for producers to be more aware of proper handling of sheep," Haugen says. It is important for producers to understand the behavior of sheep as they work with them. Proper handling combined with proper facilities will result in less stress for both sheep and producer.

Reducing stress during pregnancy can help maximize lambing success. "Avoiding handling and decreasing traffic are important during pregnancy. Producers should also minimize the number of strange people doing chores," Haugen says. Ewes become familiar and trusting with their caretakers. When they are exposed to strangers, stress levels increase. Haugen recommends not using dogs to move pregnant ewes. They may be rough and loud which will excite the ewes.

Shearing must be done in a timely fashion. According to Haugen, shearing should take place at least a month before lambing. It is essential to provide additional feed to these ewes since they are facing two stress factors: the last trimester of pregnancy and potentially cold weather.

Weaning is another time of extreme stress for ewes. Haugen recommends switching ewes to low quality roughage and stopping grain feeding. Maintaining this low quality roughage diet and minimizing handling for 10-14 days prior to weaning will help minimize stress.

Lambs also feel the stress factors of weaning. "Keep the lambs in the same environment but remove ewes so that they are out of sight and can’t be heard," Haugen says. He recommends vaccinating 10 days prior to weaning and then not working the lambs until a week after weaning. It is important to keep the lambs on the same creep diet for a week. After that week a gradual change can take place.

Proper stress allows producers to increase overall productivity, carcasses quality and the health of their animals. According to Haugen, research shows that the amount of condemned carcasses increases under high stress conditions.

Haugen also says producers must become more aware of biosecurity issues in sheep operations. Minimizing the amount of visitors to operations and isolating new animals from resident animals are essentials that are often ignored. Haugen also recommends monitoring animals for illness regularly and requiring commercial livestock trucks to be thoroughly cleaned prior to loading livestock.

For more information on stress management or other current sheep issues, the NDSU Hettinger Research Extension Center will hold its annual sheep day on Wednesday, Feb. 12. Contact the Hettinger Research Extension Center at (701) 567-4323 for information on the event. Roger Haugen will also be speaking on this topic in Carrington on Feb. 19 and Rolette on Feb. 20. For more information on these dates contact Roger Haugen at (701) 231-7645 or rohaugen@ndsuext.nodak.edu.

Source: Roger Haugen, (701) 231-7645, rohaugen@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Writer: Deana Oe, (701) 231- 8371, deana.oe@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu